
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 28, 1990                   TAG: 9006290682
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

LOVES FLAG, BUT LOVES COUNTRY MORE

I AM AMAZED that President Bush is calling for a constitutional amendment to protect the American flag.

What is going on here? Has the symbol of the nation become more important than the nation itself?

Our Constitution, that most supremely eloquent of documents, unique in the history of the government of man, written to ensure the rights of a free people, is now to turn from the rights of living, breathing men to the rights of gaily colored cloth. How absurd!

As a lifelong Republican, I am ashamed - not of my flag, but of my president. Ashamed that he would prefer to stroke our emotions while insulting our intelligence.

President Bush says he loves the flag - so do I, but I love my country more. Leave the Constitution alone! RIVERS D. DAVIDSON RURAL RETREAT

by CNB